Aerospace
Source: Airbus, Boeing
Airbus pushed ahead of Boeing on in Q3, delivering 140 passenger aircraft including 46 in July, 39 in August and 53 in September. This compared with 112 deliveries from Boeing, with 26 in July, 35 in August and 51 in September. Over the first three quarter of the year, Airbus has delivered 437 passenger aircraft, and Boeing 328. Since August, Boeing’s aircraft deliveries were boosted by the return of the 787 Dreamliner into service.
For the year to date, Airbus has secured 856 gross orders and had 209 cancellations. In Q3 its order book was boosted by sales to China, with orders for single aisle (mainly A320neo and A321neo) jets including for 100 jets from China Eastern, 62 from Air China and 32 from Shenzhen Airlines. Airbus’s big order in September was for 42 737 Max from Canadian airline WestJet. It is waiting for approval on the lager 737 Max 10 version and the smaller Max 7. in the nine months to the end of September Boeing booked orders for 542 aircraft and had 114 cancellations.
Automotive
S&P Global Mobility has warned that under the worst case scenario, Europe’s energy crunch could cut the region’s car
production by 40% of 1 million vehicles per quarter from Q4 2022 and through 2023. It forecast that European production could drop potentially to as low as 2.75m cars in Q4.
The rise in both conventional fuel prices and EV charging costs, alongside the wider inflationary squeeze on consumers is impacting demand for new cars. The European automotive manufacturers Association ACEA has scrapped its earlier forecast of the EU car market returning to growth in 2022. Instead it now expects it to shrink by 1% to 9.6 million units. Compared to the 2019 pre-pandemic figures, this represents a drop of 26% in car sales in the space of just three years, ACEA said.
While passenger car registration in Europe including the EU. EFTA countries and the UK rose by 3.4% in August y-o-y to 748,553 units, for the first eight months of 2022 overall they were down 11.8% or almost a million cars to just over 7.2m units. There are escalating concerns that manufacturers may move more production out of Europe.
Source: CAAM
The European picture contrasts with the Chinese market, were automotive association CAAM has reported sales figures for September, with 2.3m passenger cars sold in the month, up 32% y-o-y. In Jan-Sep 2022 China’s car sales were just short of 17m units, according to CAAM, up 14.2% y-o-y. New energy passenger cars accounted for almost 4.4m of sales, more than double y-o-y. China producer 17.2m passenger cars in the first nine months of 2022, up 17.2% y-o-y, including 4.5m were NEVs, up 117%.
Semiconductors
Global semiconductor sales edged up by 0.1% in August y-o-y to $47.4 bn but were of 3.4% down from $49bn in July 2022, according to the Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) which represents 99% of US and nearly two-thirds of non-US chip firms.
Global sales growth has stalled in recent months, and the month-to-month drop in August was the largest percentage decrease since February 2019, said John Neuffer, SIA president and CEO. “Sales into Europe paced all regional markets, while sales into China saw the sharpest declines,” he added. This was before the US in October announced new curbs of US exports of advanced computer chips to China.
Month-on-month, sales in August rose by 1.5% in Europe, but fell by 4.9% in China and were down in Japan (-1.4%), the Americas (-2.8%), Asia Pacific and all other regions (-4.3%). Year-to-year sales increased in Europe (14.9%), the Americas (11.5%), Japan (7.8%), but fell by 10% in China and were down 2.9% in Asia Pacific/all other regions.
Oil and gas
Source: Baker-Hughes
Global rig count appears to be at its highest in 18 months, according to data from Baker Hughes, with North American rig count last assessed on 14 October and the rest of the world in September.
At this last count, there were 1,864 rigs in operation worldwide, an increase of 24% y-o-y, including 769 in the US, up 43%. The expansion in US activity was driven by gas, with 610 gas rigs in active operation in mid-October 2022, up from 580 a year earlier.
